Woodpeckers use wood-eating fungus to make their pecking easier.

Image: Flickr/Lip KeeIt has been proposed that woodpeckers and fungi might work together in a symbiotic relationship, with birds spreading fungi to new environments, and the fungi helping to soften the wood to make hole-boring easier. Although attractive, there has never been direct evidence supporting this hypothesis... until now! In this study, scientists show that woodpeckers cary specific species of fungi that are also found in holes made by woodpeckers. They went on to track the fungi growing in man-made holes, and found that only holes visited by woodpeckers become colonized by those same species. So there you have it: woodpeckers spread fungus from hole to hole, presumably making the wood softer for the peckers. Ahem.Experimental evidence of a symbiosis between red-cockaded woodpeckers and fungi. "Primary cavity excavators, such as woodpeckers, are ecosystem engineers in many systems. Associations between cavity excavators and fungi have long been hypothesized to facilitate cavity ...